Hello All! Lyn Wilson at your service! The Tabitha’s Mountain Rhapsody Family Artists wanted to share with you some of the ideas we’ve used recently. Some of these ideas have been pinned to our various pages… some we’ve kept to ourselves. Welcome to the “Aladdin’s Cave” of ideas we’ve selected just for our readers! This may become a regular feature on our blog!
Lyn’s Appliq-able Stitches: Truth be told… I’ve only taken one commission this summer because I wanted some time off :) I’m a little bit of a free spirit. I like to try unstructured ideas just to see what I come up with for an end result. I do this with knitting, crocheting and even with my cooking (no I haven’t blown up the kitchen yet LOL) This month a friend said she needed a crocheted blanket for her little one. I didn’t really feel like using a pattern from my collection therefore I struck out on my own with a crocheted sampler of stitches. I call it the Ultra Violet Unplanned Textures Baby Blanket. You can find the “recipe” on my facebook page @Out of the Parc Designs. I may or may not add an applique to the blanket however, I do have some applique patterns in reserve. Below are links to some fabulous stitchionaries and applique patterns. Should I add an applique or not? Let me know in the comment box on this page :) By far Hopeful Honey has been my favorite stitchionary to use on my Ultra Violet project. She has a full spectrum of stitches PLUS video tutorials! http://www.hopefulhoney.com/stitchionary/ The Fiber Flux blog is always an excellent “go-to” resource for knitters and crocheters. There are a myriad of tutorials on the Fiber Flux blog and YouTube page: https://www.fiberfluxblog.com/p/crochet-tutorials.html Undoubtedly newstitchaday.com is one of the top stitchionaries on the web. There are videos to accompany almost all the stitches. https://newstitchaday.com/category/stitchionary/crochet-stitches/crocheted-texture/ Appliques are great fun and they add a nice touch to your handmade projects. We use them quite a bit in our work. Here are some links to applique pattern collections: https://www.crochetpatternsgalore.com/item_type-applique.html 50 Applique patterns to choose from https://www.allfreecrochet.com/tag/Applique All Free Crochet offers 20 pages of appliques! Everything from hearts to sharks. Wow! Lastly, but absolutely not least is Stitch & Unwind’s collection of great appliques https://www.stitchandunwind.com/crochet-afghans-applique-patterns/. The Carving Block When I first learned to carve, it was almost entirely from YouTube videos; mostly because I wasn’t sure where else to look. I found that videos can be more helpful than books or diagrams, because you can actually watch the artist at work. Here are some videos on carving that I’ve found beneficial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlIr95-ZlCc A guide to carving wood wizard figures https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXY3wuRn5yo Carving owls with just one knife! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EVr-HnOKBY Some pointers on wood carving https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh8Le3azTPM A guide to carving wood-spirits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymFKg2DKnMU A traditional American-Indian carving of an eagle’s head https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0STVrABZPnk And one of the first carving videos I ever watched. T.K.’s Kostume Korner When you peruse the aisles of specialty shops like Spirit Halloween stores or even the Disney Store, you can usually find a selection of costumes for children. Many of these options are… well, they lack a certain something. Little kids love to dress up any time of the year, and sadly, a lot of these costumes aren’t built to last. But what if I told you that fun for kids was right at your fingertips, if you have the skills, or are willing to learn? For girls who love 18 inch dolls and their 14 inch sister type dolls, check out all these beautiful clothes from ABC Knitting Patterns! https://www.abc-knitting-patterns.com/category-crochet-doll-clothes.html So dainty, I love it! Next up, we have a selection of free dresses and accessories for the sewers, (and some No-Sew selections too!) from Rebecca Page: https://rebecca-page.com/product-category/all-patterns/category/free-sewing-patterns/page/1/ All you have to do is sign up for her free newsletter. I especially love the possibilities for the Patsy Party dress for adult Comic Con Cosplay. https://rebecca-page.com/product/patsy-free-ladies/ Who could you be? A 1950s-style Princess like Cinderella or Belle? Marvel’s Agent Carter? Wonder Woman? Even Lois Lane! More 18 inch goodies can be found at Pixie Faire: https://www.pixiefaire.com/collections/free-doll-clothes-patterns Lots of great stuff here, and they run sales often for the paid patterns. For general boredom busting fun as summer goes on, check out My Froggy Stuff! This mother-daughter duo make life more fun every week with their tutorials and the fun of unboxing dolls. Here are two videos to get you started. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02xtCB9cd1E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGH_2ZQLnuE And that’s our Pinning list for now! We hope you enjoyed perusing our “Cave of Wonders” and hope to see what you make next! If you want to keep up with our crazy crafting adventures, you can follow our page on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/Tabithasmountainrahpsodyfiberarts/ We have so much fun over there, and we hope you come along for the ride.
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Admittedly, shopping the Facebook Marketplace seems... fraught with peril. You know, of the Stephen King novel, ax murderers, evil clowns in sewers variety. But once you think about it, it's not that much different than Ebay, really. And a whole lot safer than Craigslist! Facebook has a lot of rules and safeguards in place to keep you safe while you shop.
You can find all kinds of local goodies, from toys, to yard sale ads, to vintage furniture. A lot of times, the items aren't that expensive, but good quality. For instance, my mom bought a huge bag of curtains for practically the whole house for 20 dollars! They're not cheap curtains, either, they're very nice at one point expensive curtains, the lady who sold them to us was just downsizing. My brother got himself a rather beat up duster that he uses for his gunslinger/Firefly Browncoat costume, not to mention to keep himself dry shoveling walks in the wintertime. Yeah, it doesn't particularly look that spiffy, but it does the job. As for myself, I've made most of my most recent doll purchases on the Marketplace, and mainly from one person. The prices, even with shipping, are better than Ebay most of the time. I have never had a bad interaction with anyone I've contacted over the Marketplace. Because everyone is pretty much local (my favorite doll vendor is the farthest away in Syracuse), you're dealing with your neighbors and friends. In fact, it's a pretty good way to meet your neighbors. I got to meet a lovely lady who was downsizing her kid's toy collection this last time and purchased a lovely Monster High bus. It's gonna be a sweet prop for my photos and table. That was a lovely interaction and I hope maybe I'll be able to buy from her again. In short, Facebook Marketplace is a great resource for the thrifty person with an eye for finding the diamonds in the rough and good for the local economy to boot. I would really encourage our readers to give it a try, you never you what you'll find! For the past few weeks, we of Tabitha’s Mountain Rhapsody have been scouring the internet for new ways to sell our inventory to our customers. Now, the search is over. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, introducing Bonanza!
Bonanza connects shoppers directly to sellers. Sellers can sell almost anything, and there are a lot of very unique items on Bonanza. They have a little of everything. They seem to be geared specifically toward small businesses like ours. After spending a few minutes on there looking around, we could see that they were the place for us. Soon, we’ll be starting our own store, and selling off some of our inventory. We’ll post the links to Facebook, so you can see and purchase these items yourself. |
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